‘A beautiful follow-up for The Bear and the Nightingale.’
Starting where we left off at ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’, Vasya – dressed as a boy – goes into the wilderniss, which is the only logical thing she can do after the damage she has done to her birthplace. On her journey she encounters a lot of burnt down villages, and hearing the counless whispers about ‘bandits’, Vasya decides to act and find these marauders. This is how she eventually ends up in the army of the Moskovian sovereign. She visits the city she always wanted to visit, but in Moscow exist more secrets than she’d thought. Meanwhile, Vasya has to trust more and more with her secret in order to save the city of a life-threatening danger.
Review
At first, I was a little hesitant to pick up this book, because I really has to wrestle my way through the first. Nevertheless, I was very curious to how the story would develop, so I decided to just start reading, and let me tell you: I was not dissapointed.
Katherine Ardens writing remaines challenging, but I feel like I’m kind of getting warmed up to it. A major improvement in this book compared to the last one, was that there was at least some kind of plot visible. Arden does stick to her detailled descriptions of surroudings, but in this book, those feel more meaningful than the descriptions in the first book.
Regarding the originality of the story, this book continues to be a real masterpiece. It’s really astonishing how the writer keeps the fantasy coming. This is also noticable while reading: new characters and creatures keep the story compelling and refreshing.
Conclusion
A beautiful follow-up that is certainly not inferior to the last book. I do catch myself looking forward to reading the finale book. I’d recommend this book to everyone loving classic and old stories, woven with a subtle touch of romance.
| Product information: |
| Written by: Katherine Arden |
| Pages: 384 |
| Publisher: Del Rey Books |
| ISBN: 1101885963 |
| Interested? Click here |